What to know about regulation bill splitting California tech community

A California Artificial Intelligence regulation bill is one of the most ambitious in the United States and has split the tech community.

SB 1047 would usher in a series of sweeping regulations of AI as the industry experiences an unprecedented boom. The regulations could mark a watershed moment in the home of the world's biggest tech hub, for better or worse.

Here's everything you need to know about the bill and surrounding drama:

SB 1047, known as the Safe and Secure Innovation for Frontier Artificial Intelligence Models Act, is California's biggest attempt to regulate AI after the federal government failed to do so.

While praising the abilities of AI, it also warned of the potential harm of the technology.

"If not properly subject to human controls, future development in artificial intelligence may also have the potential to be used to create novel threats to public safety and security, including by enabling the creation and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, such as biological, chemical, and nuclear weapons, as well as weapons with cyber-offensive capabilities," the bill says.

Among the many safety provisions of the bill is a requirement that developers be fully transparent with their security protocol and release a full copy to the public. The attorney general must be granted access to all safety and security protocols as well.

The bill includes only civil penalties rather than criminal penalties.

Silicon Valley is one of the world's largest tech hubs, hosting the U.S.'s largest high-tech manufacturing center and largest concentration of high-tech companies — 30 Fortune 100 companies.

OpenAI, Google, Apple, and many of the other largest AI leaders are headquartered in the area, meaning that any regulation would affect the entire country.

The bill has broad support in California politics — it passed through the state senate in a 32-1 vote. State Sen. Scott Wiener (D), who is a sponsor of the bill, said he would also support a federal law that preempts California's.

"I reject the false claim that in order to innovate, we must leave safety solely in the hands of technology companies and venture capitalists," he said in a statement.

One surprise supporter was Tesla CEO Elon Musk, who is usually not a fan of regulation.

"This is a tough call and will make some people upset, but, all things considered, I think California should probably pass the SB 1047 AI safety bill," he said in a post on X. "For over 20 years, I have been an advocate for AI regulation, just as we regulate any product/technology that is a potential risk to the public."

The AI company Anthropic offered reluctant support and said the amended bill was improved but there were still some problems they needed assurances for.

"In our assessment, the new SB 1047 is substantially improved, to the point where we believe its benefits likely outweigh its costs," a statement from the company says. "However, we are not certain of this, and there are still some aspects of the bill which seem concerning or ambiguous to us."

A surprise coalition of tech companies and Democratic politicians have come out against the bill, including Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA).

“I spelled out the seriousness and priority we in Congress and California have taken. To create a better path, I refer interested parties to Stanford scholar Fei-Fei Li ... she warned that California’s Artificial Intelligence bill, SB 1047, would have significant unintended consequences that would stifle innovation and will harm the U.S. AI ecosystem," Pelosi said in a statement . "She has, in various conversations with President Biden, advocated a 'moonshot mentality' to spur our continuing AI education, research and partnership."

She was joined in her concerns by the Chamber of Commerce.

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"The chamber believes there is an important and appropriate role for government regulation of AI to mitigate potential risks associated with the technology," it said in a statement. "However, the requirements put forth in SB 1047 are premature and would duplicate the federal efforts. We fear that if enacted, SB 1047 would stifle positive U.S. advancements of this emerging suite of technologies."

This angle of attack was shared by OpenAI, which argued that tech regulation was the job of the federal government rather than the states.